50 



The caterpillar is green, and has a deep red dorsal stripe and a pale red 

 mark along the side, where it projects over the legs. Sometimes it is paler 

 and without the red markings. It feeds on various species of dock and 

 sorrel (Rumex.) 



The chysalis is of a light brown, very much freckled with darker brown. 

 It is very thick and dumpy, much resembling that of Lycana. 



There appears to be three broods of this resplendent little butterfly in the 

 year. It appears first on the wing in April or May ; the eggs then deposited 

 hatch in about ten days, and the caterpillars feed up in about three weeks ; they 

 remain ten or twelve days in the chrysalis state, and the butterfly is on the 

 wing again by the end of June. The same relative periods may be taken 

 with the third brood, the butterflies of which appear in September, and con- 

 tinue on the wing sometimes as late as the 8th of November, flashing about 

 in the sunshine, or settling on the yellow flowers of the Inula or Ragwort, or 

 on the lilac blossoms of the Scabious, whose soft tones set off to the best 

 advantage the metallic effulgence of this little gem. The caterpillars from 

 this last brood hybernate when small, and reappear early the following spring. 



Phlceas has a very extensive range, and is abundant throughout Europe, ex- 

 cept the extreme North, in North Africa from the Canary Islands to Abyssinia, 

 Northern and Western Asia to the Himalayas, and even over the greater part 

 of North America, one form of it extending as far South as Venezuela. 



It is also an abundant species throughout the British Isles, except the 

 extreme North. 



It is described in Bay's "Historia Insectorium," 1710. 



GENUS X. POLYOMMATUS. 



Latreille. 



POLYOM'MATUS, many eyed, in allusion to the numerous eye-like spots on 

 the under surface of the wings. 



This is a very large genus, embracing between three and four hundred 

 species, distributed all over the world, but least numerous in South America. 

 One species, Parrhasioides, is as yet the only butterfly known from the 

 Galapagos Islands, and another, FranJclinii, is found high up in the Arctic 

 Regions. One species, Trochilius, is the smallest of our European butterflies, 

 measuring not more than half-an-inch across the wings. Small as all the 

 European Blues are, few of the tropical ones surpass them in size or in beauty ; 

 and the largest known species, Pyreri, a native of Japan, is not more than a 

 couple of inches across the wings, being thus only slightly larger than our 



